Larry Kocot acknowledged the early problems with both the Medicare Part D benefit and the Affordable Care Act's health insurance exchanges.

But, he said, past lawmakers came together to fix the problems, which seems much less likely now, given the climate in Washington.

"We're going to need for us to come together as a country in a bipartisan way to solve some of the problems for what will be a foundational benefit in the future — all politics aside," Kocot said during a talk Tuesday at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

"I really do believe this will succeed," he said, "but we're going to go through a little bit more of a rough patch before we see that sun through the clouds." ?...

Under the Affordable Care Act rollout, Kocot said, President Barack Obama's administration has focused too much on looking at the success of a website — Healthcare.gov — and not enough on enrolling consumers.

"This is a lot more than a website," he said. "This is an enrollment process for millions of people, with robust subsidies and a lot of money involved."